North Korea fires its longest-range missile since 2017, the latest in a string of test launches

South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened an emergency meeting of the country’s National Security Council to discuss North Korea’s weapons test. Moon criticized the intermediate-range missile as “a challenge to international community’s efforts for a diplomatic solution and a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”

North Korea has not tested its longest-range ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons since 2017, when it conducted a nuclear test and test-fired three intercontinental ballistic missiles potentially capable of reaching anywhere in the United States. Following the missile test Sunday morning, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an immediate threat to the United States or its allies but called on North Korea to “refrain from further destabilizing acts.”

The flurry of weapons tests in 2017 led to punishing economic sanctions from the United Nations Security Council. The following year, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared a moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, and launched a flurry of diplomacy.

However, Pyongyang suggested this month that it may lift the self-imposed moratorium, citing the need to counter hostility from the United States. Experts say North Korea is ramping up the pressure to enforce concessions from Washington amid a long stalemate in nuclear negotiations.

Sunday’s launch marks North Korea’s seventh weapons test this month, more than it had conducted all of last year.

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